Those of you that have been following the my 'Fear' saga will have noticed that one of my main characters, Jenny, is deaf.
Being a disabled guy, I have wanted to use more people with disabilities in my stories. I wondered how everybody feels about Jenny? I hope I haven't tried to make her too much of a 'super-hero' as it were. This is, I suppose one of the problems with political correctness going too far. A person with visual difficulties doesn't develop enhanced hearing, they just learn to use their hearing more effectively.

Yes, my stuff is suddenly getting a bit serious, but not too serious I hope. Part 8 of Fear will be ready soon, but I'm trying to find work as well, so that cuts down on my spare time.

Take care y'all
Paul

------In five hundred years time, most of us will be forgotten dust. But Hitler will still be remembered, God loves irony.

Comments

The following comments are for "Fear of pc"by Ogg

Fear of pc
You raise an interesting point... one about which I will now rant, in my usual hackneyed manner...

Too often when people with a disability- either physical or mental- are portrayed in literature and the media it’s their disability that is the focus of the story, sometimes in a negative light and sometimes in a “look at the poor brave souls” struggling to overcome adversity sort of a way. The argument is, I guess, that this sort of thing raises awareness, but, when you think about it, it’s actually really patronising, and, I reckon, pretty unhelpful, because it makes people with disabilities out to be exceptional, or beyond the norm; it draws attention to their differences, as if that their only focus in life, the only aspect of their personality, making a distinction and drawing an invisible line between “us” and “them”, which is bullshit...

Jenny works because she is not a two-dimensional character, and her being deaf is not her defining feature. There’s a profound need of writing like that, where there are not “disabled people”- in a category all of their own- but people with the same quirks, frailties and imperfections as every body else, who happen to be disabled.

On a personal level, I’d like to see a T.V show or read a book where there’s a fully functional three dimensional character living- not “struggling” or “coping” or “coming to terms”- with their mental illness. Because- believe it or not- we are out there, and although I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t an issue, it does not dominate every waking moment of my entire life and it is not the constant focus of my attention…

Apologies, rant.

Point is, Jenny really works as a character... She's not a super-heroine, just feisty and damn hot, and, now that I think about it, a lot less disabled- emotionally at least- than Dave...

Shannon
Thank you so much for that. There's a guy called Dr David Bolt who has stated, 'people have impairments but society disables them' which is exactly what you're saying. Jenny is based on someone I used to know when I was a teenager - a long time ago now. She was full of piss and vinegar, smart, funny, imperfect and adorable. The emotionally troubled Davey (esp. the former alcoholism) is also based on a person, long since gone. The idea of Jenny crying on the battlefield troubled me at first, but I realised it would be difficult for a woman or man to hold back in the face of such carnage. I've watched documentaries about the Somme where surviving soldiers were interviewed and still nearly in tears at a memory that has proabably haunted them throughout their lives.
Plenty more to come about these two yet. I might decide to fill in more gaps about their background. Jenny is stronger than Dave in some ways and yet needs him as well. It's starting to look like a long term project and will need revising as well.
thanks again, Shannon, you've really made my day!
take care
Paul